It was a cold night. Cold and dark with only the stars shining through the black sky. Snow had fallen as it did almost every year at this time, in this part of the world. It was piled up around our houses. Inside the fires and the furs kept us warm. It was a time to be together and to tell stories about those who had gone before us and how their lives had formed and shaped us and how they still seemed present among us in the many experiences of our own lives. It was good to be together and to feel embraced by the walls and the warmth of our home and the love we shared.

The newcomer wanted to tell a story. His story. One we had not heard before. We had welcomed he and his friends in. Shown hospitality. Shared our food and our wisdom. They did not seem to understand the ways of this land, especially this winter time. They complained about the cold and the snow as if that would change anything. At first they did not like our food or our ways but soon they opened their ears to what we could teach them. And we walked together.

So on this cold winter night we listened to them. To their story. About another winter, long, long ago. In that time when the birds had flown away and the lakes were frozen and snow lay thick on the ground. A woman was going to have a baby. She had travelled a long distance. Why was she not in her home with her family looking after her? Her husband was with her but they could not find a place for her to have her baby. They stumbled across an old shelter. The bark was broken and falling but at least it was a place to come in from the cold. There was no one else to help them. All they had was a rabbit skin to wrap the baby in. But it was a beautiful baby. It was almost as if there was the light of the moon reflected on his face and shone around his head. Some hunters were out in the forest, even late at night trying to find food for their families. You can become very hungry in the cold winter. Suddenly the night sky lit up in green luminescence and they heard a voice coming from the light telling them that a baby had been born out here in the woods. They told these hunters that a great leader had been born, someone greater than anyone who had come before. The hunters were amazed to think that a great leader would be born here. In the middle of the cold of winter. But as the light grew dimmer and the voices disappeared, they saw the little shelter and they heard a baby’s cry. They looked in and saw the parents and the child and were amazed that this was happening, just as they had been told. They ran to tell everyone what they had heard and seen and that this baby would be a great leader of his people and of all people. Later some great chiefs from far away also passed by that lonely place. They knelt down before this child and gave him many gifts, furs of fox and beaver. The child would survive and grow.

The newcomers said that this child was also one of us. That this story was also our story. That this child was born for us.

In the 1640’s, the Christmas story was told for the first time in this part of the world to the Wendat people who first inhabited this land by members of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, who had come from France to what they considered to be a new world, to tell this story. The words of the carol we sing, “Twas in the moon of wintertime” were originally written by Father Jean de Brebeuf in the language of the people. “Jesous ahatonhia”, Jesus your king, is what we call it. The tune we use is French but the words are a translation by an English speaking Canadian, Edgar Middleton, in the nineteenth century. It is considered to be the first Canadian Christmas carol. The Jesuits were deeply convicted that the story of Jesus needed to be told in the language and in the culture of the people who were hearing the story. Of course that had been happening in Europe and other parts of the world for centuries. European carols and paintings of the nativity made Jesus part of their world and their story. Things that a Jewish family in Roman occupied Palestine would have known nothing about. Holly and ivy and ships sailing into Bethlehem. Evergreen trees and wasail and candy canes. It all helped to hear the story. And to understand. And to make the story their own.

We cannot sing this carol, or tell this story in 2018 in Canada without recognizing that the sharing of this story so long ago and the early attempts to express it in ways that were meaningful for people of a very different culture and experience went on a dreadfully different and abusive path. Too often the story of Jesus became a weapon to denigrate and infantilize and dehumanize the people of this land. While I was preparing for this evening I was hesitant to use the carol and the art work by Frances Tyrell in the bulletin. Too often we have been content with this carol and with the way the story was told four centuries ago and to forget the path we have taken since then.

But perhaps the story can give us courage. Courage to once again tell the story of the child of Bethlehem in our own time and our own place. Every Christmas I pull out a lovely illustrated book of paintings by the Canadian painter William Kurelek entitled A Northern Nativity. In each painting we are invited to find the Christ child and members of the holy family: in a shed of straw in a western cattle drive, in a dark box car in a prairie town, in a broken down car on the highway outside a pulp and paper mill, in a grove of trees across the river from the Parliament buildings lit up in the night sky, on a small fishing boat tied up outside the boathouse in an Atlantic cove, among the crowds of tourists gazing at the frozen beauty of Niagara Falls in winter, sitting at a table among the poor at a supper offered by a church on a cold winter night.

Where do we find the Christ child? How do we tell the story of this birth and the life of this Jesus in our world? A world still beset by war and injustice, by poverty and inequity. A world ever more deeply framed and determined by technology and artificial intelligence. A world in which even the seasons are now threatened by our own human activity. A world where it is hard to tell stories of angel songs and redemption songs. We need to find courage, and language, and faith. This ancient story, this child coming among us, God with us, Emmanuel, needs to be told and needs to be heard. It is up to us to find the words and to make the story ours in our own lives.

We come to the table on this holy night. As we come, we continue the story of the child of Bethlehem. We remember his birth, his life, his death and his rising again. We sit together in this place of warmth and of embrace, a shelter from the cold of winter, and share this story, and our story and a meal that reminds us of God with us. In whatever our circumstances are this night. No matter who we are or what our story might be, here we know that God is with us. That we are loved with a love like that of a Mother holding her newborn child. And the love of one who would give all for us and who calls us to follow in his good path. Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given. Jesous Ahatonhia.

About St. Andrew’s Church

St. Andrew’s Church is a dynamic, historic and active congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Its mission statement is that “the people of St Andrew’s are called by God to serve in faith, hope and love in the heart of Toronto.

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Judy joined the staff of St. Andrew’s in 2006, and provides administrative assistance to our ministers, the Director of Music, the Clerk of Session and the Convener of the Board of Managers. She also works closely with our Church Manager, Thomas Guillot, and assists with a variety of projects and events. She is also a key liaison for weddings, baptisms and funerals. She brings to her position at St. Andrew’s an extensive background in administration and management in social services, and well-developed organizational skills.

Judy cares deeply about the people of St. Andrew’s, including members, adherents, visitors, volunteers and program participants, and provides a warm greeting to everyone who contacts her. Please don’t hesitate to call her if you have any questions about our services or events.

Thomas Guillot joined the St. Andrew’s staff in 2015. In addition to his responsibilities as the Church Manager, he serves on the Board of Directors of Boarding Homes Ministry, and is an active member and Treasurer of Rosedale Presbyterian Church. He has served in a number of different capacities during his working career, including with Centre d’étude et de coopération internationale (CECI) in Mali, Africa.

Daniel Bickle holds an undergraduate degree in Music Education from the University of Toronto where he studied organ with Douglas Bodle, Music Director Emeritus at St. Andrew’s Church. He also has a graduate degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Illinois. For many years he was Head of Music at Branksome Hall where his choirs won numerous awards in festivals and competitions, performing widely in the United States and in England.

Following eighteen years at Branksome Hall, he moved into administration in the Toronto District School Board, retiring as a Principal in June 2010. He is presently Director of Music at St. Andrew’s Church where he plays for public services, conducts two choirs, and oversees the Life & Music Program. He is also pursuing his musical interests as a choral accompanist and as a collaborative pianist.

Bob came to serve as Associate Minister at St. Andrew’s in May 2011. Previous to this he had been the Executive Director of the Churches’ Council on Theological Education in Canada and had also served as the Coordinator of the Canadian Churches’ Forum for Global Ministries from 1995 to 2003. From 1988 to 1994, Bob was appointed by the Presbyterian Church in Canada to teach at Ricatla Seminary in Mozambique. He received a Master of Divinity degree from Knox College in 1983, a Master of Theology degree from the Edinburgh University in 1987 and a Ph.D. from the University of Cape Town in 2007. His doctoral dissertation focused on the Protestant churches in Mozambique and the liberation struggle. In 2014, his dissertation was published as “Liberating Mission in Mozambique: Faith and Revolution in the Life of Eduardo Mondlane”.

In addition to working ecumenically for most of his ministry, Bob has served the wider church in many different capacities. He has been Convener of the E.H. Johnson Memorial Fund and the Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations Committee. He was a delegate to the Uniting General Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2010 and has been part of a North American working group on the WCRC Accra Confession, “Covenanting for Justice in the Economy and the Earth???. He has served as adjunct staff at Knox College. In 2011, he was part of the Moderator’s tour to Israel and Palestine in response to the Kairos Palestine Document. Bob’s focus at St. Andrew’s is on adult education and community outreach

Will was inducted as the Senior Minister at St. Andrew’s in September 2007. Prior to serving at St. Andrew’s, he served as the minister of Morningside-High Park (MHP), Toronto, after graduating from Knox College with a Master’s of Divinity degree in 1996. He subsequently completed a Master’s of Theology degree from the University of Toronto in Biblical Studies; and completed his Doctor of Ministry (DMin) degree, in 2017, at McCormick Theological Seminary at the University of Chicago.

His greatest joy, however, is the time that he spends with his three kids — Kate, Madeline and Spencer.

In addition to his congregational responsibilities, Will has been active in a variety of ministries and organizations, including the Boards of Directors of Evangel Hall and Portland Place; the PCC Evangelism Advisory Group; the PCC Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations Committee; the Governing Board of the Canadian Council of Churches; the Interfaith Committee on Chaplaincy for Corrections Services Canada; and the planning committee for the annual Ontario Prayer Breakfast. From 2004-2005, he served as the Moderator of the Presbytery of West Toronto; in 2011, he served as the Moderator of the Presbytery of East Toronto; and from 2006 – 2013, he served as a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches.

Aside from his work in the church, his interests include reading, playing guitar, cooking, motorcycle riding, travelling, enjoying time with his kids, marathon running, sailing, and spending time camping and canoeing.